Target-customized carbon shell structure of carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles for fuel cell applications

The development of Pt-based alloy nanoparticles has contributed to improving fuel cell performance. Nevertheless, the commercialization of the catalysts is limited due to structural stability issues. To enhance the durability...

Size Prediction of Carbon-Encapsulated Nickel Nanoparticles

A simple theoretical model to predict the size control of carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles is developed using heat transfer and carbon diffusion theories. Taking carbon-encapsulated nickel nanoparticles as an example, the minimum size of carbon-encapsulated structure that can be formed as a function of the ambient temperature is calculated and the effect of activation energies for carbon diffusion on the size of carbon-encapsulated nickel nanoparticles is examined. The theoretical results are in good agreement with the experiment, suggesting that our model can be used to guide the size-controlled synthesis of carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles.

Synthesis, Properties, and Applications of Low-Dimensional Carbon-Related Nanomaterials

In recent years, many theoretical and experimental studies have been carried out to develop one of the most interesting aspects of the science and nanotechnology which is called carbon-related nanomaterials. The goal of this paper is to provide a review of some of the most exciting and important developments in the synthesis, properties, and applications of low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials. Carbon nanomaterials are formed in various structural features using several different processing methods. The synthesis techniques used to produce specific kinds of low-dimensional carbon nanomaterials such as zero-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (including fullerene, carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles, nanodiamond, and onion-like carbons), one-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (including carbon nanofibers and carbon nanotubes), and two-dimensional carbon nanomaterials (including graphene and carbon nanowalls) are discussed in this paper. Subsequently, the paper deals with an overview of the properties of the mainly important products as well as some important applications and the future outlooks of these advanced nanomaterials.

Synthesis and Characterization of Graphite-Encapsulated Metal (Fe,Co,Ni) Nanoparticles by a Detonation Method

A method for synthesizing carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles(CEMNPs) is reported. In the proposed method, a composite precursors containing various nitrate dissolved in absolute ethanol is ignited by a nonelectric detonator in nitrogen gas in an explosion vessel. Upon the completion of detonation reaction, CEMNPs (Fe@C, Ni@C, Co@C) with diameters ranging from a few nanometers to about 20 nm are produced in the explosion vessel.The material characteristics of these nanoparticles are then examined with the XRD, TEM, EDX and VSM, which characterize the feature of morphology, components, phases and magnetism of nano-composite particles. The composite particles whose coating shell were graphite carbon could be dispersed finely. The core of nanoparticles were composed of iron,cobalt and nickel crystal to that of the above explosive precursors.The magnetic analysis indicated that the different composite nanoparticles have good ferromagnetism and superparamagetism in room temperature.

Synthesis of Carbon-Encapsulated Metal (Fe,Co,Ni) Nanoparticles by Detonation Decomposition of Composite Explosives

A detonation method for synthesizing carbon-encapsulated metal nanoparticles (CEMNPs) is reported. The composite precursors containing various nitrate dissolved in absolute ethanol is ignited by a nonelectric detonator in nitrogen gas in an explosion vessel. The material characteristics of these nanoparticles are then examined with the XRD,TEM,EDX and RS. The results show that the composite particles whose coating shell were graphite carbon could be dispersed finely. The core of nanoparticles were composed of iron, cobalt and nickel crystal to that of the above explosive precursors.